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Continued from previous page
George Weiss, W'65
While Marcum gave up the high pay a Wharton
education can deliver in favor of spending his days
helping the poor, George Weiss, W'65, fulfilled his
own drive to make a difference by earning the big
money and giving away lots of it, along with much
of his spare time.
Weiss has sent 148 underprivileged students
from three different East Coast cities to college.
"Businessmen like to see results," he says. "My
goal is to have ten cities . . . to help lots and lots
of kids."
Weiss is a money manager whose eyes first
opened to the power of taking an interest while he
was a Wharton undergraduate. His fraternity hosted
a Christmas party for 12 inner-city kids, a gang
called the 12 Apostles. They struck up a friendship
with Weiss, who played basketball and pool with
them while he finished school. He also looked
them up when he came back to Philadelphia for
homecoming.
Somewhat surprisingly, all 12 graduated from
high school. Weiss remembers clearly what one of
them told him: "George, we couldn't have dropped
out and looked you straight in the eye."
Weiss says he was so moved, he vowed then
and there to do something big if he ever had the
money. Now, he does. Though he's shy about disclosing
the figure, Weiss estimates he has spent
more than $20 million of his own money putting
kids through college.
He founded "Say Yes to Education" in 1987,
promising 112 underprivileged sixth-graders from
one of Philadelphia's toughest neighborhoods that,
if they could make it through high school, he would
pay for college. Weiss also did more than promise
the money. His gift included tutoring, counseling,
SAT preparation, and summer programs. He has
since branched out to help kids in Hartford, CT,
and Cambridge, MA, as well as Philadelphia. He
even has a toll-free number kids can call to talk to
him directly about their problems.
Penn has been an enormous help as well. The
University has provided medical and dental care,
tutoring services, and other support.
Weiss himself intervenes when he sees Say Yes
kids going astray.
One year, after a student from the original Say
Yes group was stabbed, coordinator Randall Sims
did some investigating and figured out that at least
17 of the kids Weiss was sponsoring were dealing
drugs. Weiss came to Philadelphia one weekend
and visited each of the teenagers at home. In many
cases, their absentee fathers even showed up. Weiss
estimates that 14 of the teens quit dealing.
"I don't think just throwing money at them
really works, it's the emotional tie," he says. "You
have to get in their face. I don't necessarily mean
in a bad way, but you've got to be there."
Of the 112 children Weiss originally sponsored, 62
percent graduated from high school, compared to 43
percent from the same census tract in 1990. Weiss figures
the group could have done better if he had inter-ceded
earlier. Today, he makes the Say Yes promise as
early as the kindergarten.
"What we have learned is that by starting them
younger and younger, we have reduced teen pregnancies
from 50 percent down to just one pregnancy,"
he says.
Also, Say Yes has added some restrictions to help
hold down the academic dilly-dallying of changing
majors and going to summer school to make up for
lazy work during the school year.
His efforts have cost Weiss more than money.
They've brought plenty of emotional pain, too. A
handful of kids have died violently. One loss in particular-
a young man named Walter Brown- hit Weiss
particularly hard. Brown lived in a group home after
being severely abused by his mother. He died in a
car accident.
But Weiss also sees positive results. Recently, while
visiting the Say Yes office in Hartford, one of his college
graduates stopped by with her three-week-old
son. She and Weiss chatted about her and her husband
preparing to buy a new home.
Weiss started to cry.
"That's what it's all about, leveling the playing
field," he says.
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